Miami Vice Comes to China!!!

         Hello Everyone.  I hope you enjoyed the bonus blogs about Beijing and The Great Wall.  It is still hard to believe that it was only last week that we were there.

Sometimes we can't tell if we are in Europe or China

 As we walked our last time to church, I couldn’t help but begin to think about the things that I am going to miss about China.  I am actually going to save the retrospective for a later blog, but I have to share that I really have enjoyed our treks to church in Guangzhou.  St. Francis of Assisi has been a great church home for us while here.  The choir is excellent and the priest has an infectious joy that Cecelia and I really enjoy. 

Are we in China or Hawaii?

On top of that, how can you beat having a great service and then walking back through the meat market and seeing half a pig hanging from the back of a truck.  Like I have said many times before, the simple is just never mundane here.

This week the weather has been beautiful.  A little bit humid, but not too hot.  Lot’s of high clouds and a nice breeze.  We would also get an occasional shower here and there, but it was the kind of rain that reminded me of Hawaii. 

This week began the process of saying goodbye.  So, enjoy the activities that we did this week and we will be seeing all of you sooner than you think. 

SCHOOL:  This week at school was all about taking care of the little things needed so that we can check the girls and ourselves out.  We each had a checklist that we needed to take care of in order to complete our respective assignments.  Taylor, Claire and I have completed our lists.  Cecelia hasn’t yet, because she still is doing assessments of her students and hasn’t had as much free time to take care of it.  I know this is all boring information, but I do have a funny story that describes working here best.

Cheng Family House

            The last thing on my list was to take my Teacher’s Edition text books to the library.  I have been holding on to them as long as possible, because I still have one week of school left to teach.  This last week I am teaching basic Trigonometry, remember Cosine, Sine and Tangent.  Of course you don’t, because most of you learned it about a thousand years ago and not many of you are engineers.  So anyway, there were a couple of cool assignments that I wanted to use and I was trying to figure out what to do if I turned in my books.  I figured out a couple of internet lessons and made up an activity so that I could turn them in.  When I handed the books back to the librarian, she informed me that I wasn’t missing anymore books, but I was having six rmb taken from my paycheck.  On asking why, the library informed me that my teaching materials were over due.  Now, understand six rmb is not a lot of money.  Actually it is slightly less than one US Dollar, but I had to have a discussion with the librarian just out of principal.  I said to her, “You mean to tell me that with one week of school left, I am being fined for keeping the books I need for teaching?”.  Her reply was in the affirmative.  I then said to her, “Nobody informed me when you check out teaching materials that they need to be renewed.”  Her comment was, “I’m sorry, but they made a mistake by not letting you know.”  I then said to her, “You were the one that checked them out to me.”  Her answer was, “I’m sorry I made a mistake.”  I then asked her to change the fee and fix it in the computer.  She said that she couldn’t because it was "already in the system.”  At this point I was just done.  I walked away laughing, because this is the perfect example of how many of the staff do not know how to problem solve.  It wasn’t worth my time to continue to argue my point.

            When I turned my paperwork in to the Foreign Affairs office, I mentioned the issue to them that this might be one of the policies that they should modify.  The answer back was a sheepish grin and a I’ll make a note of it response.  Yeah right!!!!!

Now this is the way to ditch school!!!!

ADVENTURES:  After my adventure with the Librarian and the Foreign Affairs Office, we ended the week by going to the local water park again.  Earlier in the year we promised Taylor that we would go back when she was tall enough to go on all of the rides.  She has grown quite a bit and so Cecelia took the day off and we had the girls ditch school to break up our seven day work week. 

            Before we went to the water park though, we had to have one last adventure at the local bank.  It only took us an hour and fifteen minutes to send money through Western Union this time.  Thankfully this is the last time we have to go through this pain.   

She was too short for this last time.

            The water park was fantastic and the crowds were small.  The longest ride we waited on was 25 minutes.  Taylor took advantage of her new found height and promptly went on the rides that she missed in the fall.  We spent about five and a half hours that afternoon and we relished the time spent together as a family. 

            After finishing at the water park, we headed for home and prepared for the evenings activities.  Cecelia and I were going to one of the many going away parties that were being held over the next couple of weeks.  Taylor and Claire were going to go hang out with the Madsens.

Beating the heat

            The girls and Madsen kids have really become good friends.  We call them the little rat pack, because the five of them get together and use the buses in our neighborhood to run all around the community.  I will tell you that one of the things that we and the girls are really going to miss is the freedom for the kids to run around with other kids in a neighborhood environment.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and we would get money from our parents, or collect bottles and trade them in so that we could go to the store and get sodas or candy.  Sometimes we would save up enough money to even go to the movies.  We just don’t have this environment where we live. The girls love it, because a typical evening with the Madsen kids is getting money, going to Little Italy for pizza and then riding the bus together to the water park.  This week they decided to forgo the water park for obvious reasons and just watched movies instead.  They also ended up having a sleep over.

            At the first of two going away/birthday parties that Cecelia and I went to, we took a bag of books and movies for people to take.  We collected many books and movies this year, because we don’t have TV.  The reason we gave them away, is because as we have begun to pack to come home and we don’t have enough room for the 50 or so pounds of souvenirs that we are bringing back with us.  So, the books and movies had to go.  Cecelia is a little remiss in getting rid of the movies, but we worry a little about copyright fines.  Also, it doesn’t look real good when you came to China with a DVD holder full of DVD’s and then you return with three times as many movies.  Can someone say Red Flag please!!!!  Anyway, we had a wonderful time at dinner and said good by to some of the staff that we probably wouldn’t see during the upcoming week.

This plaza was cool, because they kept all of the original architecture and put the shops inside

               The next day, Cecelia and I got up early and went for a walk.  The kids were not due to come home until around 9 and we figured we could get it in before they returned.  As I mentioned earlier, the weather has been great, but in the southern part of Guangdong Province there was a Typhoon warning. We didn’t think it would affect us.  As we started our walk the scenery was glorious.  The sun was shining on a crystal blue sky and you could see the large white thunderheads glimmering in the distance.  There was also a slight breeze that kept the humidity down to a bearable amount.  Little did we know or realize that the slight breeze was going to pick up and that the low clouds accompanying the thunderheads would roll our way.  We had decided to walk over to an open air market that is about an hour walk from us and then ride the bus back, but just as we arrived at the market the rain began.  It was a slight mist at first, but then quickly turned into a downpour.  I can’t tell you how often I have been caught out in the rain here in China, but after 10 months you would think we would have learned by now.  So, once again I found myself soaked all the way through my cloths and dripping on a chair in a bus.  I mentioned to Cecelia that getting caught in the rain here, has replaced my habit of running out of gas in the States.  At least she was a kind spouse and gave me some credit for the unpredictability of the weather here.

The coolest Starbucks ever!!!!

             After returning home and retrieving the girls, we headed to Foshan for the day.  Foshan is the city in which I wrote about earlier in the blog that has the Kung Fu school and was home to the Cheng Family.  It was the place that I wrote about that helped me to remember to appreciate the simple things in life. 

  We were going there to get Cecelia’s eyes check at the place where Claire and I had ordered glasses earlier in the week.  Also, Claire and I had found this really cool plaza that we wanted to share with Cecelia and Taylor.

          When we arrived at the optometrist store Cecelia got her eyes checked.  While the girls and I were waiting we were pleasantly surprised to find that the glasses that we ordered earlier in the week were ready to be picked up.  This was great because it was going to save Claire and I a trip back.  By scooter and metro it takes about two hours to get to Foshan.  Anyway, we received our glasses and Cecelia’s results were positive.  She only had a slight change in her vision and only needs reading glasses if she wants them.  It was funny, because the lady that did the eye exam showed Cecelia’s results in a book and it said “Old age vision”.  How is that for a definitive assessment.  One last thing about the eye glass store.  I told you I was going to save things about what I was going to miss, but I have to mention this one.  I will miss going to the eye glass store with Claire, getting our eyes checked, buying two pairs of glasses, and walking out spending about $120. 
 

The ladies enjoying themselves

 You may be wondering, whether the check was good or not.  Let me tell you that I have been to an eye doctor a minimum of one time per year since I was five and these people do as good of job as any I have ever experienced.  On top of that, my prescription included Transitions lenses.  Also, the frames that you get to choose from are not last years cast offs, they are actually very stylish.  I can’t even look at one pair of glasses in the States for less than two or three hundred bucks.  I have to use double insurance in order to cover the cost back home.

Had to dump Tubbs for her.  That's right she is HOT!!!!!!

          Finally, after shopping and getting lunch we returned home so that Cecelia and I could get ready for our next party.  The party that evening had an 80’s and Goonies theme.  So, if you know Cecelia and I we have to go all out.  We decided to go as characters from Miami Vice.  Cecelia dressed in a neon yellow mini skirt and a hot pink top.  To finish it off, she wore hot pink pumps, neon earrings and a neon yellow belt.  To put it simply from my point of view, “She was Hot”.  By the way, she was pretending to be an undercover narcotics agent and had a hand gun tucked in the back waste band of her mini skirt.  I of course went as Crocker from Miami Vice.  Some party revelers said I was a spot on double for Don Johnson.  Of course they had already had one too many drinks, but who am I to judge.  I wore white pants, a neon green t-shirt and a white jacket.  Of course I had my glock in my waste band as well.  To put it in a nutshell according to the Chinese we were typical Americans carrying guns.  Finally, to pull off our entrance for everyone, I downloaded the theme music from Miami Vice onto my iPad and we entered the party playing it loud and busting any suspicious party goers.  The one guy we had to frisk was Nathan.  He was playing the character of Chunk from Goonies.  He looked very suspicious indeed. 

We had a wonderful time and headed home earlier than our friends wanted, but we needed to get up early to go to church for the last time.

 I will share with you next week how we prepared to head for Xian and complete school at the same time.

Have a great week.  Only 15 days until we return!!!!